Chen, who is looking to defend his title at the Orleans Arena, fell on his opening quad before stumbling on his quad flip as he came fourth with 82.89 points.

It was a disappointing start for Chen, who trails Zhou by almost 15 points at the halfway stage of the season-opening International Skating Union Grand Prix of Figure Skating meet.

While Chen struggled to hit top form, Zhou produced a superb routine that featured a quad Lutz-trip toe combination to register 97.43 points.

"I'm going to take this into tomorrow and use it to build confidence and move forward," said Zhou.

"I did a good job performing the program and showing some of the great things we've been doing in training.

"I can skate even better.

"I'm competing pretty consistently this season and this is just another building block."

Shoma Uno of Japan popped his planned quad flip into a double before recovering to land a quad toe-triple toe and a triple Axel to pick up 89.07 points for second spot.

"I made a mistake on the quad flip, but I did the quad toe and I think this is the first time in two years I landed it cleanly," he said.

"I was showing what I have been doing in training, but it was not 100 percent yet."

Jimmy Ma of the US pulled off a quad toe-triple toe, triple Lutz and triple Axel in his routine to "Black Swan" to notch a personal best score of 84.52 points as he moved above Chen into third place.

"I definitely wasn't expecting to sit up here tonight," said Ma.

"My only goal for this competition was to do everything I do in training, to feel the music.

"I didn't want to have any regrets going home.

"Obviously, there's still a big job ahead of me tomorrow and I'm very excited.

"I am excited to learn from this experience, it is unreal."

Two-time European champions Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov of Russia have established a strong lead in the pairs competition after scoring 80.36 points in the short programme.

World bronze medallists Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii  are one place below their compatriots after recording 75.43 points, while Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara occupy third position with 72.63.

Competition is due to continue tomorrow with the free skating segment in both the men’s and pairs competitions as well as the women’s short programme and the rhythm dance section in the ice dance contest.